1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for enhanced telephone customer usage details. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for accessing telephone account information and imposing limits on telephone usage.
2. Description of the Related Art
The cost of using a stationary phone or mobile phone has decreased which as increased the popularity of telephone use. Many users have multiple telephone accounts, such as a home phone number and a mobile phone number. Additionally, some parents establish mobile phone accounts for their children in which the parents pay for their children's telephone use. Telephone service providers promote many types of service plans to attract customers. Some service plans have a high monthly fee but have unlimited telephone use including long distance calls. Other service plans have a low monthly fee but a user is charged for usage on a per minute basis and is also charged for long distance calls.
A challenge found the existing art is that there does not exist a real-time simple method to access acquired telephone charges for a particular account. In order to check long distance usage, toll calls, and local toll calls, a user contacts the service provider's customer support desk and inquires about the account. Some service providers offer an online service using a web-based lookup system. In addition, cellular phones use a call feature that connects to an automated customer support desk which provides account information from an accounting database. This information includes minutes used in-plan and out-of-plan as well as billing information and account balances. If a user wishes to access multiple telephone accounts, these access methods can be very time consuming.
Furthermore, a challenge found with the existing art is its ability to cost effectively limit the amount of phone usage for a particular account. For example, a parent who pays for a child's mobile phone use may wish to limit the total monthly charges of the corresponding telephone account to $20. Pre-paid telephone cards and plans are currently used to manage telephone usage costs. However, pre-paid plans may have hidden costs which make the plan non-cost effective.
First, pre-paid plans may have connection fees which are also called first-minute surcharges. Connection fees may be charged when a telephone call is connected. Second, pre-paid plans may include a monthly tax or one-time tax. Third, pre-paid plans may have a maintenance fee which may be deducted from a phone card every month, every two weeks, or every week. Fourth, pre-paid plans may have a high “minute rounding” charge. The industry standard is one minute rounding, as in the case of residential telephone services. Pre-paid plans may be rounded to one, two, or even three minutes. For example, a 30 seconds phone call may be charged as a 3-minute phone call. What is needed, therefore, is a simple and quick way to access one or more telephone account usage details with the ability to cost effectively limit telephone use for a particular billing cycle.